IPL week six: CSK seesaw, Jacks unleashes, Salt rubs it in for DC, SRH pip RR

A recap of the major matches and moments from the sixth week of IPL 2024, at the end of which Rajasthan Royals are still table-toppers while Royal Challengers Bengaluru remain tenth out of ten teams.

Gaikwad the bright spot for seesawing CSK

Defending champions Chennai Super Kings experienced the best and worst of T20 cricket this week, starting out by smashing Sunrisers Hyderabad by 78 runs but then losing to Punjab Kings at home.

Matters did not go well for SRH captain Pat Cummins, who opted to field and then nursed figures of 0/49 from his four overs out of a CSK total of 212/3, thanks mainly to skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad’s 98 off 54 deliveries. The in-form opener hit 10 fours and three sixes during his match-winning knock, and he was backed by the New Zealander Daryl Mitchell’s first major contribution, 52 off 32 balls, and 39*bnot out from Shivam Dube.

Set 213 to win, SRH never got going. Travis Head failed for the second game running, one of seamer Tushar Deshpande’s three wickets upfront which left the chase teetering at 40/3 inside the Powerplay. Each of the CSK bowlers used by Gaikwad, except for Deepak Chahar, took at least one wicket and the result was that SRH were bowled out for 134 in 18.5 overs. Mitchell, after his solid innings, made himself accountable for with five catches in the deep.

However, a few days later, CSK were rocked by injuries to Deshpande, Chahar and Matheesha Pathirana and a depleted attack was put to task by Punjab’s batting. After Gaikwad opted to bat, CSK managed 162/7 with the PBKS spin pair of Rahul Chahar and Harpreet Brar stifling the home team’s batsmen with a combined 4/33 off their eight overs. Barring Gaikwad’s 48-ball 62, no CSK batsmen made an impact and a chase of 163 was completed thanks to Jonny Bairstow (46), Rilee Roussow (43) and the not out pair of Curran (25*) and Shashank Singh (26).

Jacks goes berserk in RCB’s romp

Gujarat Titans’ total of 200/3, built around a 49-ball unbeaten 84 from Sai Sudarshan, was made to look grossly inadequate thanks to Will Jacks, who smacked a 41-ball century for Royal Challengers Bangalore just days before England’s provisional T20 World Cup squad was decided.

Jacks began his innings on shaky ground, and hardly timed a shot sweetly for the first 17 deliveries he faced, while at the other end Virat Kohli did the heavy lifting.

After 14 overs the chase, Kohli was batting on 69 and Jacks on 44, with RCB needing 53 from 36 balls. Two overs later, the match was finished and Jacks was roaring after getting to his maiden IPL hundred, off 41 balls, while Kohli had moved from 69 to 70. In the 11 balls he faced from the last two overs, Jacks looted 56 runs with a stunning assault on Mohit Sharma who he hit for 29 in one over followed by him smashing Rashid Khan for six, six, four, six and six.

The winning six – his tenth – gave Jacks his century and handed RCB a nine-wicket win with four overs left to be bowled. That maiden IPL hundred overshadowed Kohli’s 70* from 44 balls in partnership of 166.

Salt rubs it in for Delhi Capitals

Are Delhi Capitals ruing not retaining Phil Salt ahead of the IPL player auction in December?

The England wicketkeeper-opener was offloaded by DC before the auction and did not opt to purchase him back, even when he was in the middle of a purple patch in the West Indies, and watching Salt’s batting exploits for Kolkata Knight Riders in 2024, one gets the sense that the Capitals let one slip.

Salt is KKR’s leading run-scorer with 392 from nine innings at an average of 49 and a strike-rate of almost 181, and his most recent innings was a superb one against his former franchise. During the match with DC at Eden Gardens, Salt smashed five sixes in an emphatic win as his 33-ball 68 made quick work of a target of 154. Of those 68 runs, 60 came during the Powerplay, and asked after the win about his approach for KKR up front this season, Salt replied that he believes such a high-risk approach puts the odds in his favour.

This is sweet retribution for Salt, who on auction day last December was in Trinidad with England’s white-ball squad trying to come to terms with being unsold. Four months later, Salt has been KKR’s top performer having been approached by the franchise when Jason Roy dropped out for personal reasons. The 27-year-old has four fifties in his last five IPL innings, and overall his 22 sixes in the tournament place him at seventh place CHECK

SRH edge RR in last-ball thriller

After losing to CSK, SRH closed out the week by edging Rajasthan Royals by one run

Chasing a target of 202, Royals were left stunned in the first over as Bhuvneshwar Kumar rolled back the years in a display of class that had Jos Buttler and Sanju Samson out for ducks. Enter Riyan Parag, who along with Yashasvi Jaiswal made full use of two dropped catches to counter-punch and put Royals on track for victory.

Jaiswal made 67 and the visitors were cruising, needing 45 to win off five overs with seven wickets in hand. But then Pat Cummins – who had dropped Jaiswal on 7 – brough himself back and dismissed Parag for 77 in a three-run 16th over. Jaiswal was then bowled by T Nararajan, and the equation came down to 20 needed from 12 deliveries. Cummins bowled a terrific penultimate over in which he conceded seven runs for the wicket of Dhruv Jurel, and then it was over to Bhuvneshwar to defend 13. That he did, nailing a yorker that pinned Rovman Powell lbw off the last ball of the game.

Earlier in the evening, SRH had struggled to 37/2 inside the Powerplay and had just 48 runs on the board after eight overs, but Travis Head switched gears to get a vital 58. Nitish Reddy unleashed on Yuzvendra Chahal to score 76* and Heinrich Klaasen smacked 42* off 19 balls to get SRH past 200.